That’s What Space Sounds Like

Cassini made its first of several dives towards the gas giant April 26. On that leg of the mission, the probe found that the space between Saturn and its rings was empty. Really empty.

“The region between the rings and Saturn is ‘the big empty,’ apparently,” Project Manager Earl Maize said in a statement. “Cassini will stay the course, while the scientists work on the mystery of why the dust level is much lower than expected.”

All this means that when Cassini was collecting data last week, it went from hitting a few hundred particles per second to hitting just a few during the entire transit. The researchers converted their data into an audio file that is… chilling, to say the least.